The effects of

Minoxidil

I started taking Minoxidil, better known as the active ingredient in
Rogaine, at the end of June 1998, after Dyke March in S.F. Actually, I
bought
it after Dyke March but put off taking it for a few days because I was
worried I wouldn't be able to figure out how to keep it from dripping off
my face. It's a topical application; you squeeze 1 ml. into the dropper,
and then supposedly drip it on your bald spot - in my case, that's my
chin. It stayed on pretty well, as long as I didn't just pour it on my
face. Using the dropper as if it were a paintbrush worked pretty well.

July 10th, 1998: After two weeks, I noticed my moustache getting
darker.
I already had some little moustache hair, like any good Italian :) I
wasn't sure if it was really darker yet, or if I was just looking at it a
lot more closely.

July 20: I think I see beard shadow starting down along my
jawline. There were a few hairs growing out of my chin, which I had
trimmed before starting minoxidil, and now they're short and bristly and
growing stronger - there are more of them.

July 22: Definite stubble on my upper lip, and just below my
mouth like a little soul patch!

July 25: I can feel the hairs on my cheek more, and I passed as
a boy downtown when I went to get a haircut!

July 26: Definitely sprouting a lot more chin hairs - beard
might even come in earlier than the 4months it said on the box.

July 27: Soft fuzz on my cheeks.

July 29: I can see little soft dark hairs all down my jawline.
:)

August 3: I feel like I almost have too much beard growth - too
much too fast - so I only take the minoxidil once today.

August 4: Really getting quite hairy about the face.

August 5: My skin is dry from the alcohol in the minoxidil, so I
start using calendula gel to heal that.

August 8: Little hairs connecting my moustache with my goatee!
All the hairs are getting pretty long. There's still lots of space between
them, though, and they're pretty light and soft.

August 11: Did I have little hairy patches under my eyes
before? I think the next thing I notice will be a beard.

August 12: Looked in the mirror putting minoxidil on and saw
myself as a man - made me very happy.

August 13: Too much hair, so furry! Beastie beardy boy me....

August 16: Natasha noticed my beardlet at Changeling (LYRIC's
trans youth group) and said it wasn't even visible two weeks before.

August 19: Little dark hairs especially on my chin, corners of
my moustache, and connecting with my sideburns. Sort of coming into focus.

August 21: Celeste noticed my peachfuzz and was fascinated. She
really wants to try it but her gf won't let her.

August 22: Love my fuzz! Cat noticed my peachfuzz and was all
happy for me.

August 24: Jen and Cat, who noticed my peachfuzz when we were
grocery shopping, called Mary to see if I was on hormones and if so good
for me, and whether i was going to transition or not - because they
thought I was joking about the rogaine :)

August 25: Bought men's electric razor.

August 29: Shaved for the first time because of a family picnic
that day. Razor was $10 at walgreen's; it's crap but that could be the
weak batteries as well. My face looks all clean now.

September 2-3: Some fuzziness is back.

September 7: Steph noticed the peachfuzz and gets all intrigued
by the idea of using rogaine.

September 14: Back to "usual" hairy fuzziness - feeling chin
hairs are darker, sideburns longer and more of them.

October 1: Total difference between the fuzzy and the bare parts
of my cheeks. Little bit of a "fuzzy forehead" problem.

October 2: Totally have sideburns. The hairs are much longer and
denser.

October 6: Dreamed that some women stopped me in the hall and
asked me if I was a man or a woman, and got all excited to take picutres
of me because I was a woman with a goatee and they were making a book or
a photo spread or something of women with facial hair.

October 14: My sideburns are getting really long!

Octover 31 (Samhain): My dad comes to visit and he notices the
facial hair. I told him lots of women have facial hair and they're just
taught to scrape, burn, bleach, and rip it off, which is true. He didn't
really believe me though, and said later that he thought I should get
tested for a hormone imbalance. Ha!, I should only be so lucky!

November 6: Bought some
chrysin and started taking it with
androstenione. Chrysin prevents the andro from converting into estrogen
instead of testosterone, which it quickly does in my body.
Mary wonders what the people at the women's hot tub (Osento) think of
my hair, which I guess is a testament to how much it's grown. But nobody
really seems to notice.

November 7: I'm so quizzical about my beardlet. We go to the
Alameda Food Bank to volunteer - how do these total strangers see me? What
is that mom thinking, and her daughter? Punky freak in a lime green mohawk
and five o'clock shadow, geeze. What is it? Well? Why won't they tell me
what they see? I'm sort of awkward too, trying to hide it with the
straight sweet sorority girl helping us and the woman leading it all and
the men carrying boxes and....

November 8: Little distinct hairs on my chin. Robin tugged on it
because she didn't have a beard of her own to stroke thoughtfully.

November 9: Beard hair doesn't feel soft anymore - bristly
hair.

November 10: Stripey beardlet! I really don't know what the
people at work think. Do they even notice? Will they? Is it just part of
my wacky personality?

November 11: Really distinctly growing facial hair; have to
wonder what others think of it, even just in class. Do they see what they
want to see, or is it so gradual they don't even notice?
I think my sideburns, with their longer and denser hairs, are just
going to keep growing till my whole chin and jawline is like that. Cause
they're getting really long, and where I was delighted awhile back cause I
had hairs long enough to tug by my ears, now I have them all the way down
to an inch above my chin. I'm not taking it as often as I should, either,
especially since there were a few weeks in October where I was running out
and then ran out entirely. I think the andro's helping but I don't really
know for sure, do I?